Kettlebell Long Cycle and presses is starting to make me look like someone took a barrel of flesh and painted an outline of a sixpack on it and then thought: Naaah screw it, i'll go paint somewhere else.

In reality I'm supposed to be doing the Enter the Kettlebell program, but the endless ladders of presses are too boring for me to keep up for more than about two months at a time. This time I interspersed my EtK program with Long Cycle, jump rope, and pullups. The well-known whatthehell effect of kettlebells means that my time with long cycle has increased my pressing significantly. Yay!

Current program is thus 8 minute jump rope warmup AMRAP. Then 16 minutes of long cycle. When I rest from long cycle I do pullups instead. Haven't calculated the volume in kilogram-meters yet, but I think it's significant.

I've gone from pressing a 16 Kg bell to 24 Kg for reps in about a year and I've had several breaks where I didn't lift anything for about two months at a time.

I'm starting to look into supplementing the kettlebell program with yoga of some sort. KB for doing work and chopping down trees, yoga to sharpen the axe.

I just used vouchers received for xmas to buy a turbo trainer so I can finally work some HIIT into my cycling. Also, I'm pretty excited to give Zwift a go. It's subscription based, so not very ERE but means I can work on my racing capabilities when it's icy out. My cardio fitness plateaued a long time ago, the commute really isn't the place to do HIIT as you need to keep some energy in reserve to get out of tricky situations as they unfold, so eager to see what a trainer can do to aid performance.

Also, before xmas I bought a KB and one of Pavel's books. I really need to get into gear with that. How long did it take you KB'ers to get into the swing of things? If you can excuse the pun

I'm mostly sorry for you that you're buying things to do cardio before giving kettlebells a proper go. Swings done right are so effective that jumping rope, even at high intensity, is something you do for warmup, or to keep warm between sets of swings. Once that gets easy, do Snatches, once those get easy, double kettlebell long cycle has you covered (and by covered I mean winded and miserable).

The beginning of Enter the Kettlebell is very nice. You're doing small concentrated sessions of turkish getups and swings. You're most likely going to start out fine and after a few weeks you'll do just great. For the next long while, you will most likely find a LOT of stuff to get better at regarding swings and form in general. Going to heavier kettlebells reveal a lot of small inaccuracies in your technique that you didn't notice so personally I've had a lot of benefit from doing a few workouts with a heavier bell from time to time, just to go back to my working weight and apply my new biomechanical experiences there.

The unwiedlyness (imadeaword) of non-competetion kettlebells means that, opposed to barbells, the movement mechanics are SLIGHTLY different depending on the bell weight, but it's different enough to make a difference when you're working with them.

I tried doing presses with an 8kg and a 16kg in the same hand to compare how it feels to a single 24 kg bell, it's really something and it means that I can tinker with my exercise for a VERY long time with the bells me and the GF own between us. 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24.

I'm genuinely surprised how much fun I'm having noodling around with kettlebells.
I think I love kettlebells. Sorry barbells...

So time getting into the swing of things: very little. Is there room to grow? Yes, definitely!

Handstand progress. 1X 40 seconds and 2X 30 seconds handstands this morning while barely touching the wall for balance. In the rest interval I do headstands for 90 seconds with a kipping pushup to handstand at the end of the rest like this one....http://gymnasticswod.com/content/handstand-push-kip

Absolutely no progress with walking on my hands. I take one step and teeter. Eventually I will get there.

Increased to two 40 second and one 30 second handstand. After ten minutes of rest I did an additional 40 seconds. Progress is slow, thought I feel a little more balanced on my hands.

A few weeks ago I was running on a rainy Wednesday morning and ran into a November Project workout. I'm not sure how to describe them in a nutshell. Maybe the camaraderie of Crossfit but free and outdoor and more running based. They seem to be spreading quickly. Did I mention.... free.

I've spent the winter sitting at my desk working and reading copious amounts of material ... and now my ass is as flat as a pancake. I've been working out, but nothing structured or challenging. I need to find a goal that interests me enough to motivate me. I'm not good at winging it when it comes to exercise. I could sign up for a race but ... been there, done that. If I trained for a race, I'd want to combine it with a different type of goal (preferably strength-based).

Sunday I mowed for several hours. With my scythe. Then I finished up the taller grass on Monday. I was so whipped I didn't even feel like trail running yesterday. It's been raining forever but it's warm enough for the grass to grow. I should just leave the gate open and let the deer in to mow it.

Extremely impressive and very inspiring, but not directly because of how in shape or strong he is currently. More so because of the impressive efficiency of movement and iron clad control of those movements. It's why I follow certain people on Instagram like some of the Crossfitters and one woman out of Seattle (@KaisaFit) who is extremely impressive.

I don't think that sort of fitness is ere. I'm leaning on longevity rather than strength or endurance. Absent years of body mechanics training and physical training, it's highly likely that I will injure myself attempting to imitate. I know too many former military people that are hobbled by the experience. No thanks.

As for my current fitness. (5'9" 160lbs)
20" three step jump vertical
8 minute mile for 5 miles, climbing and descending1200'
50 push ups nonstop
Leg press 450lbs (can't do more because pressure on lower back)
40+ second handstands
Can curl up from "Crow" to headstand but lowering is shaky.

I'm working on core next. My yoga teachers are laughing when they get to "rowing the boat" (legs up , chest up, body in a v; now lower both to 6" above the ground & repeat)

The only exercise he does that has a chance of causing lasting damage is when he slides his arms way out in front of him from the push up position. That might put enough stress on the shoulder joints to be an issue, but even then as long as you don't train through any pain it's probably not long-term detrimental.

The hobbled military people are probably hobbled because they had to/were forced to work through injuries, obvious overuse, etc., as opposed to the actual workout. It would seem to be the nature of the job, more than the workouts. Kind of like if a construction worker who works out develops arthritis or some other hobbling ailment. It was probably the work not the workout, as discomfort, bad form, etc. can be removed from the workout but not the work.

The same can be said of former NFL players. The workouts that cause future health issues it was the practices and games they played through with injuries. They have almost constant low level injuries that don't get to properly heal for months due to the practices and games.

The raises, face pulls, and pushdowns are all done rest pause style. Everything else is done reverse pyramid, with long rest periods and low-medium reps.

I might add some some minor ab and leg work down the line, but right now all I care about is reaching my genetic potential on those muscles that have a real visual impact (delts, upper pecs, lats, and arms).

Call me vain, but let's be honest here: the vast majority of people lift in order to attract the opposite sex. And last time I checked, no woman has ever slept with a man for his squat numbers.

So...I fractured my wrist. (I know, don't say it.) I'm having trouble running because my hand swells while I run and the cast gets really tight. Any idea how to avoid that without having to run with my arm in the air like I have a question?

Also, any ideas on how to do upper body workouts without using my wrist? I thought maybe I could attach ankle weights to my biceps somehow? It hasn't been an issue up to now because I also hurt my rotator cuff when I hurt my wrist, but that's healing nicely and I think my ortho will lift restrictions on that tomorrow.